Galapagos Bird Canvas Print, Bird , Cormorant Photography, Canvas Print, Canvas Wall Art, Galapagos Photography
Galapagos Bird Canvas Print, Bird , Cormorant Photography, Canvas Print, Canvas Wall Art, Galapagos Photography
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The Galapagos Islands offer all visitors a truly unique experience when it comes to searching out and observing animals, birds, fish and reptiles from the prehistoric era, including the Flightless Cormorant. In 1800’s Darwin used his time in Galapagos to complete his theory of evolution. But to be honest it's really about seeing these untouched species in their native habitat. There are so many different types of birds, iguanas, tortoises and a lot of underwater marine life.
During my recent bucket list trip to the famous Galapagos Islands, located approx. 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean, I finally had my dream opportunity to photograph many fish, birds, reptiles and animals who have not changed much from the prehistoric times. On this day, our zodiac boat carried us across the choppy waters and into an alcove where we were able to safely disembark onto the shore.
With my two DSLR’s and associated lenses safely stored in a watertight “marine dry bag”, we exited the boat hip deep into the water, and then began our walk to opposite side of the island. On this island where the Cormorant bird is plentiful, we made our way across the rugged lava rock terrain, to finally arrive at the shore where we were able to stop and watch Cormorants at play, including diving for their food of choice “fish”. What is truly interesting about the Galapagos Cormorant, is they are “flightless”, they can’t fly. In my hometown of Toronto Canada by comparison, we have plenty of Cormorants along the shoreline, but they can all fly very well.
So, why can’t they fly in the Galapagos? Cormorants in general, feed on fish and as such they need to be able to fly to the fishing grounds. However, in the Galapagos, the fish have always been so plentiful since the beginning of current time, the Cormorants did not have to fly anywhere, because the fish were everywhere. As a result, their wings were not used and overtime, they grew smaller, had less feathers and were left useless for flying. So, as can be seen in this image, the beautiful blue-eyed Cormorant has very small wings. What a unique experience and story so see how evolution works in this case for the Flightless Cormorant.
